As this was in the 70's style and conventions were very different. The genre and conventions from Michael Jacksons first solo hit, Ben, shows a drastic change in his appearance and music compared to his latest music. The genre is Motown. At the age of 14, Jackson made this music video and took the pop world by storm. Here, we see Jackson as a black afro-carribean boy with an afro singing a pop hit, for the Motown label. He shows his youth with a live performance at the Oscars dressed in very colorful clothing and with a constant angelic smile. This appeals to his audience as they are in awe of his talented vocal range at such a young age. Also, due to the style being so different, Jackson's choice of clothing would have appealed to a lot of young people. Here, he wears flares and big collared shirts which teenagers would copy as they idolised Jackson.
Don Black and Walter Scharf wrote this song for the 1972 movie of the same name. It was the sequel to a movie called Willard, which was remade in 2003 starring Crispin Glover. Ben is a pet rat. In the movie, a young boy befriends the rat, but the rat turns evil and recruits other rats to attack humans. In the remake of Willard, Ben becomes an enormous super-rat. The lyrics are touching and sentimental, and make no reference to rodents. A lot of people were very moved by the song and this is its reason for its vast popularity.
The target audience for this video by Michael Jackson was mainly the younger generation, however the record was so successful and all ages bought it.
Michael Jackson's 'beat it' shows a big change in conventions to his earlier video, Ben. Here, there is a large focus on the performance side as we see a lot of dancing by Jackson, where as before he was just standing on a stage singing. It is set in a bar and on the local streets of a neighbourhood Therefore his audience are able to easily relate to his videos. He, again uses loud clothing to stand out and set his fashion statement. Also, this videos shows some concept themes such as the gang lifestyle of people during this era. This is especially apparent in the opening when we see the different groups segregated by their clothes and appearance.
You have made a start in describing how your chosen music artist was represented in the music video above. However, you have not completed your analysis.
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